


The Seven Napoleons

by PlaidAdder



Series: Missing Pages [7]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: M/M, Mycroft IS the British Government, Post-Reichenbach, Professor Moriarty - Freeform, The Final Problem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 19:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14339091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlaidAdder/pseuds/PlaidAdder
Summary: [date redacted], 1891Confidential Report Submitted by Margaret Hopkins (case CLAA351, file SH12)Subjects observed: Dr. John H. Watson, Mrs. John H. Watson, Inspector LestradeType of report: TranscriptNotes: Per standing orders to provide full transcript of any conversations between Dr. Watson & male callers + any conversations between Dr. and Mrs. Watson regarding Dr. Watson's male associates. Transcript of Dr. Watson + Inspector Lestrade below. Transcript of subsequent conversation between Dr. and Mrs. Watson to follow at a later date. Note that will be final report for me from this location as Dr. Watson has since been insensible and Mrs. Watson has sacked me.******In which we discover how Moriarty got away. The conversation reported on takes place just before the major events of "All The Single Ladies."





	The Seven Napoleons

[date redacted], 1891

Confidential Report Submitted by Margaret Hopkins (case CLAA351, file SH12)

Subjects observed: Dr. John H. Watson, Mrs. John H. Watson, Inspector Lestrade

Type of report: Transcript

Notes: Per standing orders to provide full transcript of any conversations between Dr. Watson & male callers + any conversations between Dr. and Mrs. Watson regarding Dr. Watson's male associates. Transcript of Dr. Watson + Inspector Lestrade below. Transcript of subsequent conversation between Dr. and Mrs. Watson to follow at a later date. Note that will be final report for me from this location as Dr. Watson has since been insensible and Mrs. Watson has sacked me.

Conversation took place in study, beginning approximately 4:30pm. As usual speakers identified with first line and thereafter change of speaker indicated by a dash.

DR. WATSON: Thank you, Lestrade, it's good of you to come. 

INSPECTOR LESTRADE: I would have come sooner, but we've got our hands a bit full down at the Yard.

\--Of course, of course. Please, sit down.

\--Cosy little study you have here. How's Mrs. Watson?

\--She's well.

\--Still playing lady detective?

\--If you mean is she still an active member of the Society for the Protection of Single Ladies, then yes.

\--Ah well. I used to think Mr. Holmes was a lunatic and a nuisance, but there's no denying now that we're worse off without him. Perhaps I'll say the same of your wife and her ladies, one day.

\--Perhaps you will.

\--I'm a plain-spoken man, Doctor Watson, and if I've been a bit sharp with Mr. Holmes or with you now and again, I never meant anything by it. Your friend Mr. Holmes was a fine man and a benefactor to the public. He's very fondly remembered down at the Yard. 

\--Thank you, Lestrade. He would have been glad to hear that, while he was alive. 

\--Now look here, Doctor Watson. If you have something to say to me, say it outright. 

\--How could you  _miss him_?

\--I beg your pardon?

\--Holmes gave you everything you needed, he put the whole operation in your hands, all you had to do was execute his orders. And you  _missed_ Moriarty. How did you bag everyone else--or nearly everyone else--and still  _miss_ Moriarty? 

\--Doctor Watson, with all respect and making allowances for your natural--

\--Arresting people is your _job_ , Lestrade, it's what the British public pay you to do. And instead Holmes had to die trying to do it himself. If you had--

\--Doctor, stop this now, before you say things you will regret. 

\--I'm sorry, Lestrade, but how on earth you could have bungled--

\--I lost three good men on that action. Either you will stop insulting their memory, or I will leave this house.

[There was a pause here, and a confused noise which may have been weeping. Also, someone poured out a drink.]

\--There. Take that and pull yourself together, Doctor.

\--I'm sorry, Lestrade. I didn't mean to--

\--Not to worry. Understandable. Grief and all that. Still. He didn't tell you much, did he?

\--That's not fair to either of us. He _was_ always holding something back, but at the end of the case, usually--

\--No, I mean...he didn't tell you much about what happened here after you left for the Continent.

\--No. Just that Moriarty and a few others had escaped.

\--Right. Well. I don't know what he told you about why he decided to take a holiday on the Continent with you three days before the biggest tactical operation the Metropolitan Police have ever carried out, but I'm guessing it wasn't the whole truth.

[Here there was a large sigh from someone.]

\--You're probably right.

\--Do you want to hear it? Are you up to it? You still look a little--

\--Tell me. Please.

\--Well, Doctor, first I am bound to say, and please don't take offense because I don't mean any, that neither you nor your late lamented Mr. Holmes ever knew the first thing about police work. Mr. Holmes was proud of carrying the Newgate Calendar around in his head. Good for him, he knew all the criminals of the past. It's my business to know all the criminals of the future. I know I'll never have his intuition or his imagination, but what I've got is information, Doctor Watson, and more of it than you can possibly imagine. If the citizens of this metropolis knew what we at the Yard know about them there'd be riots. You wonder how Moriarty's gang managed to operate without coming to the attention of the police. Well, it couldn't have.

\--Then why didn't--

\--As I was on the point of saying, Doctor Watson, any gang that gets that large, gets that large because it has protection. It has corrupted people on the force, who help conceal its operations in exchange for part of the take. Do you follow me?

\--I think I do.

\--I'm not the whole force. There are a lot of men who outrank me. But I have a bit of a reputation. Not for being a genius, though thanks to your friend the papers think I'm more intelligent than I really am. For being honest.

\--And well deserved, Lestrade. 

\--I'm proud of that.

\--Of course, Lestrade.

\--But it means there are certain things I don't hear about. Certain activities everyone's been warned not to let me know of.

\--Ah.

\--So when Holmes first came to me with this yarn about Professor Moriarty I thought he was--

\--Mad.

\--Well, a bit touched. Never heard of him, couldn't imagine this weedy old maths professor as the city's criminal nemesis. Nevertheless, as you know, your friend and I have been divided upon many subjects in the course of my career and I have nearly never been the one who turned out to be right. So I made some inquiries. In fact, Mr. Holmes was not mad when it came to Moriarty's gang. However, he was quite mad when it came to what to do about them. Grand battle plans involving hundreds of officers. I finally told him, Mr. Holmes, there are six other Inspectors you can trust with this and together we can command a hundred and fifty men. That is the maximum size of the operation. Also, you must secure Parliamentary support for this, because I will not send all of us into mortal danger without some assurance that we won't all be sacked for it afterward. And it has to be a one-time, simultaneous, surprise attack, with no notice given except to the seven Inspectors who are carrying this out. Otherwise, someone above or below us tips off the gang and the whole thing is a bloodbath and a failure.

\--My dear fellow, I had never thought about it, but--

\--Quite so. You never thought about it. Well, we couldn't hope to keep the whole operation a secret. Moriarty would find out about it. Holmes and I agreed that was inevitable. What we wanted was to get the drop on him regardless. So the plan was that once Moriarty started threatening Mr. Holmes--your friend was sure Moriarty would, and of course he was right about that--Holmes should do a bunk. Get out of the country, make it look like he was dropping the whole thing and going on the run. Then we'd cease all preparations and call off all investigations. So they'd assume someone had gotten to us. And then three days after that happened, as they were all going about their ordinary criminal business, the seven of us would do an emergency mobilization and WHAM! catch them all in the act.

\--And so you did.

\--And so we did. Only, as you have been kind enough to remind me, we didn't get the big fish. And you ought to know why, if you're strong enough.

\--Why is everyone always asking me if I'm strong enough? 

\--Obviously this has all been quite a strain on your--

\--I am strong enough. 

\--Very well then. The rank and file and the junior officers, they were surprised and they are now in custody. When we got to Moriarty's residence, he was waiting for us. The place was booby-trapped. Explosives by all the doors, triggers rigged up at the windows. As I said. Three good men, and when the smoke cleared, the place was empty. We'd seen him go in; I don't know how he got out. What I do know is that he was warned.

\--That's--that's hideous, Lestrade. I'm so sorry. I didn't know.

\--Of course not. He wouldn't have told you.

\--Who--who warned him?

\--Well now we come to it.

\--Don't spare me. Holmes was always trying to spare me; I'm very tired of it. 

\--You remember I asked Mr. Holmes to make sure we had some parliamentary support.

\--Yes.

\--Naturally he consulted his brother.

\--Mycroft? Why?

\--Doctor Watson...what did Mr. Holmes tell you about what his brother does for a living?

\--That he had some small government job involving facts and figures.

\--My God.

\--Just tell me, Lestrade. 

\--Doctor Watson, Mr. Mycroft Holmes is the government's secret-keeper. He attends all the meetings of all the committees and he stores in his head all the things nobody wants to write down. He knows everyone. And Mycroft Holmes, as far as I can make out, is the only person Mr. Sherlock Holmes told about the details of our plan.

\--No.

\--I warned you, Doctor--

\--No. No. I won't believe it. I won't believe he could do that to his own brother. 

\--I don't believe it either, Doctor Watson.

\--Then--then why--

\--Don't you see? Mr. Holmes asked his brother Mycroft to secure the political cover I was demanding. His brother Mycroft took the matter to someone on one of these secret committees--someone he evidently trusted. That person promised political cover, which I have to say has been generously provided. And that person, or someone else that person spoke with, gave the tip to Professor Moriarty.

\--But this is monstrous.

\--Yes.

\--Moriarty must have passed the tip along to his lieutenants.

\--Yes. 

\--The leaders saved themselves and let the gang swing for it.

\--Now you have it. Most of the people we arrested are replaceable. If Mr. Holmes hadn't ended Professor Moriarty, they would have been replaced. There's no denying Mr. Holmes saved this city by doing what he did. But you're right. An amateur shouldn't have had to bring London's greatest criminal down, and at such an awful cost. But the operation was not bungled. It was betrayed.

\--Have you spoken to Mycroft about this? 

\--I've tried. Mr. Holmes is not at home when I'm calling.

\--He will see me.

\--I don't know that he will, Doctor Watson.

\--He will see me. He must. Whoever betrayed you and your men as good as killed Holmes. He will pay for all of it.

\--Doctor Watson, please. These men have knowledge you can't imagine and power you can't evade. I understand your feelings--

\--You  _do not_ understand my feelings. 

[Here there was a pause, before Dr. Watson resumed.]

DOCTOR WATSON: I beg your pardon, Lestrade. I shouldn't be short with you. It's not your fault. You were a good friend to poor Holmes. I'm sorry for the men you lost.

\--Thank you.

\--May I ask you one more question?

\--Anything.

\--Was it part of the plan to bring me with him to the continent? 

\--No.

\--No?

\--No. He told me from the beginning that you were not to be involved and I was not to let slip anything about it if we should meet. He said you were happy with your wife and your practice and he would not put you in danger.

\--Did he really.

\--And then there you were running to meet him at the train station. I couldn't understand it. Do you understand it, Doctor Watson?

\--I believe I do.

\--Then can you explain it to me? 

\--I'm afraid not.

\--Might one ask why?

\--I simply cannot.

\--Doctor Watson, I have been very frank with--

\--Lestrade, my dear fellow, I know that and I am grateful. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for your candor. I can only say that my poor friend died, in part, to keep a secret which only I now know, and which I cannot tell you.

\--I don't understand you.

\--I'm afraid I can't allow you to understand me. I wish to God that I could. I wish that  _someone_ could understand me. Someone who's still alive.

[Here there was another pause, before they both rose.]

\--If there's ever anything I can do for you or Mrs. Watson, Doctor...don't hesitate to...

\--Yes, thank you, Lestrade. Please...forgive me if anything that has passed between us today has...

\--Think nothing of it, Doctor Watson. I know how you must miss him.

\--Terribly.

\--I beg your pardon?

\--That's how I miss him. Terribly. I don't know what to do about it.

\--I miss him too, Doctor Watson. He'd never have guessed how much I miss him. I wouldn't have guessed it myself.

[I am not entirely certain from the sound but I believe they may have embraced, briefly. Lestrade exited first. I fetched his coat, hat, and stick. He took his leave. I went into the kitchen to prepare supper. It was shortly after supper was over that Dr. Watson and Mrs. Watson had the conversation which will be the subject of my next report, and which was succeeded by his attack of brain fever. --Margaret Hopkins]

****

N. B. call Committee for Information Security meeting in camera for Tuesday next. Mycroft Holmes to be excluded from meeting and no official minutes to be taken. --Bellinger.

THE END

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Lestrade. He had one job...
> 
> From this point in, these aren't really going to be true one-shots any more, because they will all tend toward ultimately resolving the Hiatus. This one, for instance, is obviously related to what's going on in that meeting in "Right Honourable," and all of these documents belong to the narrative set up by "O Paradis." Margaret Hopkins, the operative who transcribed this conversation, is the servant that Mary is giving directions to in "All The Single Ladies."


End file.
